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"Why Won't That Stupid Bitch Quit?" watch

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Obviously, tonight's PA primary results are a tremendous win for Obama, who was able to hold Hillary's margin of victory well under 20%, while outspending her by a mere 2 to 1 (I’m not sure whether that figure includes the DVD mailers or not, though). Now that Hillary can finally do so with dignity, she should quit, for the sake of party unity and Donna Brazile's future employment prospects.

Another reason Clinton won? She beat Obama easily among late-deciders. Those voters who decided in the last three days went for the New York senator by a 15-point margin, 57 percent to 42 percent.

Straw in the wind: I was on Broad Street at lunch time, and walked past a bunch of Obama supporters holding up signs. And then I went into the Borders and, going up the escalator, gave the thumbs up to a young lady going down the escalator, who was wearing a Hillary button. Several of them, in fact. She held up a black cell phone and said: "I've got to make more calls!"

Where I'm going is that the Clinton campaign has been derided for relying on phone banks -- 90s technology. Yet who was more effective? The young lady with the phone, or the cheering supporters in the streets? I'm betting the young lady. And it may turn out that when the history of this campaign is written, that the Clinton campaign was more effective, in ways that haven't been written about, than we now know.

Here's hoping....

[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

Face to face interactions have been the most effective way to flip a voter, in my personal experience. AND you learn a lot about each candidate's supporters. For instance, I found that Obama supporters are softies. They are just as intrigued by her novelty as his. But they need a little push. It's fun as all get out to canvass. If you go out there with a cheery disposition like some kind of Mary Poppins, people just respond. I LOVE it.
Come together at The Confluence

as Clinton's lead has increased to 10%. Although I admit to some cognitive dissonance hearing pundits like Gloria Borger say that Obama needs to win Indiana. Similarly, the PBS anchor asked why Obama was staying in the race if he couldn't win white voters. That comment was amidst a sea of Obama love, but perhaps things are changing?

not to raise the specter of Obama/Hillary again, but I just saw Obama's speech, and I found it infuriating.

For him to all but state that he doesn't take lobbyist money (bullshit) but that Hillary does, and then to claim that lobbyist money is preventing Washington politicians such as Hillary from meaningful health care reform and renewable energy, WHEN EVERYONE WHO KNOWS THE ISSUES KNOWS THAT 1) OBAMA'S HEALTH CARE "REFORM" IS WHAT THE LOBBYISTS ARE ALL PUSHING FOR AS PLAN B (MCCAIN IS PLAN A), AND 2) OBAMA WAS THE DOUCHEBAG BEHIND ETHANOL REFORM (BECAUSE HE TAKES SHITLOADS OF MONEY FROM THE CORN FARMERS AND FUTURE TRADERS, BUT NOT THEIR K STREET REGISTERED LOBBYISTS (JUST THEIR FAMILIES, FRIENDS, NEIGHBORS, AND PETS)), WHICH SINGLEHANDEDLY KILLED MEANINGFUL RENEWABLE FUEL INITIATIVES-- this is not only chutzpah of the highest order, but it's snake oil selling.

i really don't think at this moment i will vote for Obama. period. i think i'll stay home come november if he wins. talk to me tomorrow when i'm more sober and less exercised, but right now i view him as a purveyor of lies and half-truths, a snake oil salesman of great skill and minimal integrity. at least i know what i'm getting with hillary. an honest, hardworking liberal who's prone to falling into bed with special interests. but at least earnest and i know where she's going. with obama, i don't think he's liberal, i know he's not hardworking, and i'm pretty sure he's not honest. in the unlikely event he became president, i fear for this country. he's already in bed with the special interests (and disingenuously lying about it by not taking money solely from registered lobbyists while claiming he's lobbyist-free), and he's not even done with his 1st term as a US SENATOR yet.

not to mention that he can't win without winning the working class, and that won't happen as long as he and his supporters keep pretending that the Clinton years were this terrible Dark Age that was so awful for working families.

Howard Fineman is on MSNBC now and sounds totally pissed off. He'd been arguing that if she didn't get double-digits she was finished - bummer, she beat his mark. Talking about how nasty and dirty she's been campaigning, used the word "typical" of the Clintons. Poor Howard.

Also, Clinton headquarters just reported $2.5 million new dollars in this evening, $1 million in the last hour.

Pat Buchanan, odd as he is, just came right out and said it: "She beat him up." The rest of the panel is on and on about how she just doesn't stand a chance overall and Hillary's being so mean and nasty and hurting the party. Buchanan says Hillary has changed the course of the campaign, she's worn Obama down, he's out of emotional gas and if he can't pick up the tempo he's finished. That's how Obama sounded to me, too; mildly disturbing to agree with Buchanan, but every once and a while he gets it right.

Great outcome, great job by Clinton and her team. If she wins Indiana, even by a little, I say Obama is finished - the remaining undeclared superdelegates will look at him as someone who can't close the deal.

Watching Obama ruin the Democrats' chances one speculates on what would have happened if instead of going nuclear against mainstream Democrats, including Hillary, he would have used his rhetorical skills to really unify the party.

He would have been the nominee by now and the Democrats would've had a solid chance in November.

He would have been wise if he campaigned to be Hillary's Vice President, being that he is young and unseasoned in politics.
But just like his bowling, he's thrown his campaign into the gutter with his caustic attacks, and he's no longer acceptable as a running mate. He'd just drag Hillary down if he were on the same ticket.
He let his head get too big, too fast and now he's going to end up with nothing. He'll be lucky if he even remains a US Senator when this is all said and done.

And, basement angel, I knew Hillary was going to win Pennsylvania when I read that story about the Tuzla conference call. Hillary's already admitted the mistake and apologized, Obama said to let it go at the debate, and then they still hold that conference call? Desperate move, IMO.

And the GOP analyst on Larry King Live just said Obama ran 10,000 ads in Pennsylvania. Is that right? Because if it is, I feel very sorry for Pennsylvania.

That's what the TV tells me. Clinton, meanwhile, has fangs, talons, and bathes herself in children's blood (Just look at that "youthful" glow of hers!).

@BasementAngel: They said that? Sick, just sick. I shouldn't be surprised after McPeak called Bill "Joe McCarthy" right in front of an approving Obama. Meanwhile, no one bothers to bring up legitimate issues, like, how Obama said no one could have predicted 9/11 or how his Iraq pledge is just cynically exploiting the good will of voters (considering Samantha Power's remarks).

That was the main theme tonight, but near the end of the CNN coverage, Gergen slipped - after hearing Obama's camp was debating about how negative to go - and said that he went harshly negative near the end in Pennsylvania and the Obama guy seemed to agree and both said it didn't help Obama.

That was what I noticed tonight - every once in awhile, as Clinton's lead hit double digits - the media narrative slipped. A couple of reporters asked why he couldn't close the deal. At least one asked why he doesn't drop out if he can't win the white vote. Several of them made Clinton's argument to the SD's accurately. CNN even included Florida in one of its popular vote scenarios (MSNBC simply put up a popular vote total with Obama ahead 800,000 and pretended Florida and Michigan didn't exist).

I watched Fox all night. It's easier on my blood pressure to filter the anti-dem meme from the constant in-the-tank-for-Obama meme on CNN and MSNBC. They were quite hard on Obama and his inability to win over working class (Reagan) democrats, white men, women, and older voters. They were especially snarky about the mess Howard Dean has made of things by not forcing revotes in MI and FL (and I agree with them). Maybe it is only on Fox at this point, but they are seriously arguing that there is no way Obama wins in November. I think some of that will transfer to the other news outlets before too long. SD's would have to be blind and have a death-wish to miss it after tonight.

Incidentally, the last I heard, Hillary has raised $4 million tonight. That should also tell them something.

RCP includes michigan as 0 for obama, and uses the washington caucus ESTIMATES rather than the actual (beauty context) primary totals.

apportioning the Michigan vote according to the "if everyone was on the ballot who would you vote for" exit poll question (46% Clinton, 35% Obama), and substituting the WA primary numbers for the caucus estimates. I get

Obama 15,425,451
Clinton 15,356,263

Obama up by 69,188 or 00.2% of "votes"

But when you add in the votes cast for other candidates, Obama doesn't come close to having a clear majority of the popular vote.

Lost has been the fact that when Hillary Clinton went into New York to run for the Senate she had high negatives, was considered a carpetbagger, and her husband was a disgrace.

Nonetheless, she organized the community. She enjoys great support throughout the state, especially with rural voters Upstate. Those were the toughest nuts to crack and she organized mightedly and won them over.

She did the same with that demographic in PA. And she will do that in IN. Barack Obama needs to get out of his head and into his heart about the plight of the white working class. Otherwise, they will vote McCain.

I keep reading this, "Clinton now has almost no chance of winning on the delegate count"

WTF is different NOW than before? Did something change? An election came out just as predicted with same number of delegates. My spreadsheet hasn't changed, so why all the people saying NOW IT'S OVER.

And as every sane person has pointed out, no one can win without superdelegates. You can argue over 'popular vote' but that is stupid, because the system doesn't work that way. Just like the president is elected by electoral votes, not popular vote. Bitch all you want, but that's the system.

In this case the Dems have picked their own system and have to live with it.

Has anyone done the math to see what happens if DNC elections were re-calculated using RNC winner-take-all approach??? It must show Hillary ahead or I would have read about it somewhere.

SEAN: "If the Democrats ran their nominating process the way we run our general elections, Sen. Hillary Clinton would have a commanding lead in the delegate count, one that will only grow more commanding after the next round of primaries, and all questions about which of the two Democratic contenders is more electable would be moot."

The DNC rules allow for the superdelegates to pick the nominee in such a contested race based on any factor they want. So, if they wanted to vote for the popular vote count leader or who they believed would be the stronger GE candidate then it would be allowed in the "system." It does work that way--in terms of the nomination. Those are the rules.

Just like the president is elected by electoral votes, not popular vote.

The GE rules are obviously different from the Democratic nomination process. If Clinton, as the nominee, had the national popular vote lead against McCain but lost the deciding battleground state by one vote then she would, of course, not win the presidency. No one is contesting that. But, again, the rules for the nomination are different.

The Precious' local staff and volunteers brought him a big win within the city limits of Philly - something like 60/40 - but it was apparently important to leave them alone to cry in their beers last night on Boathouse Row, because he had to valiantly soar on to Indiana, away from the black hole of reality, where an arena full of his enthusiastic supporters ... got to watch him get his ass handed to him.

Is he a complete sociopath?

[Edit:]

Dear Lord, I just had an afterthought -- were the Philly folks being "punished" for not bringing it for The Precious, when he himself seems to be the biggest albatross they bear?

Anyone who claims that Obama can withstand the GOP because he's withstood Clinton's attacks is delusional. The GOP in NC is up with this horrible, misleading ad (which I'm not embedding because I don't want to spread it to more web pages) - http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/arch.... For those who don't want to watch it, it's basically nothing but Wright's God Damn America speech and a claim that Obama is too radical for North Carolina and tying him to two local candidates that have endorsed him. McCain, playing honorable man, has requested it come down. I seriously hope Hillary hits the GOP for this.

And here's the 527 ad against him by the guy who did the Willie Horton ad - http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/arch.... I don't find this very effective, but then I'm not a death penalty proponent. For those who don't want to watch, it goes through incredibly sad gang killings in Chicago and says Obama voted against making gang killings subject to the death penalty and ends asking if Obama is too weak to fight the war on gangs, how can he be trusted to win the war on terror. It's like a parody of a GOP ad.

Watching both these ads takes me back to my days as a student in NC living through the Helms-Gantt ad wars. Ick, ick, ick. With all the bandying about of "racist", it's helpful to remember which party has the real racists in it.

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